Buckwheat is expected to become more expensive in stores to 37-40 hryvnia per kg.
This season, prices for buckwheat grain have almost doubled in Ukraine. It is expected that the prices for buckwheat on store shelves will soon jump.
This was reported by Anna Bosyuk, director of the Ozeryanka grain factory, in a comment for Ukrinform.
“This year, the area under buckwheat has been reduced. The summer was dry, so the crops were not filled with the kind of natural product that farmers expected and that we hoped to get in our production. Now there are still some buckwheat harvest left, and farmers are holding on to it, waiting for the price to rise in order to sell it at a higher price. And if before the start of harvesting the new buckwheat crop, we bought grain for about 8-10 thousand hryvnia per ton, now it is already approximately 15 thousand hryvnia per ton,” Bosyuk noted.
She added that end consumers will feel the changes a little later, as stores cannot immediately react to the price increase, because they are currently selling the remainder purchased at the old price. However, new batches of buckwheat will already be sold at a higher price.
“The price of buckwheat will increase. It is difficult to predict now, but we are guided by the fact that we will sell it at 30-35 UAH/kg, and in retail chains it will cost approximately 37-40 UAH,” the plant director explained.
Anna Bosyuk also reassured that, despite preliminary forecasts, there will be enough buckwheat for both domestic consumption and export.
The publication notes that by the end of October, Ukraine had almost completely (98%) harvested buckwheat. 126.9 thousand tons were harvested, which was slightly higher than expected. However, this cannot be compared with the record buckwheat harvest last year. Thanks to the increase in sowing and high yields, 207.5 thousand tons were collected in 2023.
Recall that this year farmers reduced the area of buckwheat sowing, in addition, the weather was not favorable for the harvest. Therefore, buckwheat may rise in price in the fall.